Mouse Hunter
by Loudmouse
Summary: my second story Tom mentioned a mouse hunt through a Jeffries tube in one of those episodes with the Hunters "Prey" I think and I've had a lot of mouse problems this year so it is about his little adventurehunt


summary: My second story. Tom mentioned a mouse hunt through a Jeffries tube in one of those episodes with the Hunters "Prey" I think and I've had a lot of mouse problems this year so it is about his little adventure/hunt.  
  
Author's note: I realize B'Elanna is part Klingon and maybe she did eat some Klingon food, but she isn't very found of her Klingon roots.   
The whole point of the story was that people (even half Klingon ones) sometimes have irrational fears. Maybe this does make B'Elanna a little out of character and I am sorry if it bothers any of you readers.   
  
Oh and thanks for the spelling heads up, I should have read it over. I fixed the "phaser" parts and most of the other things that I found so I hope it's more readable now.  
  
Mouse seem to follow me around, I wrote this like 3-4 years ago and even though I'm living in a new place I still have mouse problems.   
  
Mouse Hunter  
  
Standard Disclaimers I don't own these characters Paramount does and I am not making any money off of them.  
  
And is rated PG.  
  
"Torres to Paris"  
  
"Go ahead"  
  
"Come to my quarters now, . . . Pleeeease"  
  
". . . Ok?"  
  
'Well that was odd', thought Paris 'I've never heard that tone in her voice before, and it was almost panicky and child-like. Weird'  
  
He had been worried until he actually stepped through the door, then he almost laughed out loud. He could have sworn he'd seen this exact same scene in a cartoon once. If it wasn't for the look she gave him he would have. She was perched precariously on a chair starring at the far corner behind a potted plant, where a tinny, furry mouse-like animal was staring right back at her.   
  
"Well don't just stand there, do something," she growled out.  
  
"This is why you called me here. To get rid of your rodent problem." Tom said amused. It was kind of cute that she could take on any hostile alien twice her size without flinching, but she was afraid of an itty-bitty mouse. O'course he'd never tell her that, she'd rip his head off.  
  
"Just get a box and trap it or phaser it or something."  
  
"Phaser it, but it's so cute." He teased.  
  
"It is not cute, it'screepyandcrawlyandfurryandit'sgotthesetinybeadyeyesandsharpteethandclawsandit'sjustplaincreepy"   
  
'She's whining like a little girl, how cute.' Thought Tom. But it was a little disturbing too.  
  
"Okay, just calm down and get off the cha..."  
  
"No! Not until that is gone"  
  
"Fine I'll take care of it." But as soon as Tom took a step it bolted from its hiding space and into an air vent.   
  
"Well it's gone now." This alleviated her little girl panic and drove her into a hole new more rational panic. She leapt off the chair and into her bedroom returning with a tri-coder and some sort of container with a lid with tiny holes in it, and proceeded to open the Jeffries tube door.   
  
At Tom's questioning look she said, "We can't let it get into ships systems."  
  
"Your going after it?"  
  
"No, you are going after it." She said as she pushed the tri-corder and container into Tom's arms.  
  
"Oh no, I'm not going in there." Suddenly his own irrational fear was coming to the surface. Usually he wasn't afraid of Jeffries tubes, but that was mainly because somebody else was with him, if he was lucky.  
  
"Tom, do this for me." Well how could he refuse. She rarely asked favors and he would do anything for her, not just because she was a beautiful woman either, though that did have something to do with it.  
  
"Okay, but you owe me." He said as he started to crawl into the tube.  
  
"Tom." She called and when he turned around she caught his mouth in a light kiss and said in a husky whisper, "I'll keep the door open." With that he turned around, tri-corder in hand and ready for the hunt. Thankfully it hadn't gotten very far it was still in deck Nine section twelve Jeffries tube 17, straight ahead and to the right.  
  
THERE! He pounced with the contained but the creature was a hair too quick. It scurried off down the tube and out of site but the tri-corder could still pick it up and Tom moved off after it. Finally after about 15 minutes of twists and turns, with Tom following as closely as he could given the slow speed he was capable of in such cramped quarters, he had it trapped in a corner with no were left to run he dove on it.  
  
"Yes! Gotcha you little bugger." He slid the cover on under it, turned it over and crawled back out the way he came.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Well, what?"  
  
"Did you get it?"  
  
A sly grin creased his lips and B'Elanna glared at him darkly, then his grin grew into his eyes and he took the container from his back with a flourish.  
  
"My Hero." she said sarcastically but a sincere thank you was implied.  
  
"So what should we do with it?"  
  
"We should probably return it to wherever it came from."  
  
"Agreed, But how do we know were it came from?"  
  
Then she gave them that "duh" look and said. "It must be from that planet we set down on a few days ago."   
  
Then she gave him an "I'm sorry I thought you were an idiot, but I love you anyway" look and said. "But we'll run it by the Doctor just to be sure."  
  
As they entered sickbay they activated the Doctor.  
  
"Oh good it's my two 'favorite' patients." He said sarcastically. "Well what injuries have you two inflicted on each other this time?"  
  
"Thanks for your concern Doc but we're fine, we brought you a little friend." Tom held up the container for the Doctor's inspection.  
  
The Doctor then took the container and asked. "What is the problem?"  
  
"There's no 'problem' Doctor, we just need to know if it came from the planet we were on a few days ago or not, so we can return it."  
  
"Give me a few minutes." The Doctor ran several scans and checked them against the scans from the planet, and then he came up with the answer. "You were correct Lieutenant, he is in fact a species indigenous to that planet."  
  
"Well who wants to give the captain the good news?"  
  
"What, 'sorry captain but we have to waste three days going in reverse just so our furry friend can frolic in the fields of Farley Four?'" Tom said sarcastically.  
  
Torres' mouth quirked up. "That sounded like a tongue twister."  
  
"Rather than listen to you two banter back and forth all day, (as amusing as that is) I will tell the captain the bad news." Said the Doctor.  
  
While the Doctor called the Captain and filled her in, Tom and B'Elanna sat on a bed with the creature.  
  
"So," Tom treaded cautiously "Why are you afraid of Mice?" When she didn't answer he tried for a more playful tone to get her to open up. "Come on, what did they ever do to you, they're just cute little, harmless creatures. Did it destroy your favorite hyper spanner or something?"  
  
At this she glared but answered him anyway. "No, and they are definitely not cute, and I am not afraid of them . . . they just give me the creeps."  
  
He gave a 'fair enough' look and let the subject drop. Then the captain came in to view the creature. She took one look and asked. "Is it dangerous?"  
  
"No, he is harmless, I suspect it is more scared of Lieutenant Torres than she is of it." At this B'Elanna glared at the Doctor.  
  
"How could such a cute creature be of any harm?" Tom said ironically given that "cute" B'Elanna had a volatile nature.  
  
"No matter how cute it is Mister Paris it still may pose a threat to ships systems, and there may be more of them. B'Elanna get down to Astrometrics the scanners there should be powerful enough to detect them where the regular ones apparently failed. Meanwhile Tom set a course back towards the creatures planet." They both headed in opposite directions to fulfill the Captain's orders.   
  
B'Elanna, once in Astrometrics began scanning for the pesky critters. Now that they new the creatures' bio-signature they could probably easily transport the rest off the ship. All in all she found 13 more of them scattered throughout the ship, one of them in Astrometrics, with her. She froze, Tom was on the bridge and she couldn't call anyone else, there was no one else she wanted to know about her fear. It was enough that the Captain and the Doctor already suspected, but to prove their suspicions correct would be embarrassing.   
  
It moved near the door but was too small to activate it and the vents were on the ceiling. She was trapped in the room with this thing for who knows how long. She was being irrational and couldn't think straight. For the first time, ever, she wished that Seven was with her instead of regenerating in her alcove. As it suddenly skittered across the floor B'Elanna jumped onto the console, and stared at it, as it stared back. Then it just started to lick itself clean.   
  
B'Elanna still stared as it moved cautiously towards her, almost as if it didn't want to frighten her with any sudden movements. It came to a stop just before the console. It stared up at her and made a peeping noise. That's when B'Elanna realized she was being foolish and she slowly got of the console and stooped to stare at the creature. Her brain started working again and she realized that she could beam all of them to a holding area until they reached the planet. And that is exactly what she did.  
  
Three days later they arrived at the planet and said good-bye to their furry friends. Later Tom met B'Elanna in the mess hall.  
  
"Well you must be glad to be rid of our little guests."  
  
"Yeah I guess, they did cause a lot of problems . . . Still its a shame we couldn't keep at least one, they were kind of cute." She gave a quirky smile.  
  
Tom stared bewildered and amused. She turned with her food and trotted off to find a table.  
  
'There is no end to the mysteries of that woman.' Tom thought happily as he turned to join her.  
  
The End 


End file.
